'Terminator: Dark Fate': 5 lessons the film needs to learn from the mistakes of the franchise's previous movies
'Terminator: Dark Fate' will be hitting theaters soon and we're all very excited to see what the film has in store for us. With Tim Miller directing under James Cameron's guiding hand, there's some hope that this latest installment will do a better job than the embarrassingly terrible offerings that came before. Here are 5 lessons we hope the franchise has learned from its weaker installments:
Stop messing with the timeline
At this point, the timeline has been changed so many times it should be a meme. It was still fine when the changes being made related to the future but 'Terminator Genisys' took things a step further by changing literally everything about the franchise, which made no sense whatsoever. We all love the original timeline so there's really no need for all this rebooting and the franchise's attempts at fixing something that's not broken has only caused unnecessary damage.
Add to the world, don't twist it
If 'Terminator: Dark Fate' only learned one thing from its predecessors, this should be it. There have been virtually no new additions to the franchise's world since 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day', at least none worth mentioning. So far, we've only seen rehashes of the same tech, the same story arcs, and the same players and turning heroes into villains is an extremely lazy way to keep things interesting. We're all perfectly happy with things as they are and unless there's something good to be added to this world, there's really no point in even doing another movie.
Stay true to the characters
This follows right on the heels of the last point. John Conner, Sarah Conner, and Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 all have pre-existing characterizations that the fans have already fallen in love with. Having a villainous T-800 in one movie and a heroic one in the next makes sense since he is, after all, a machine but why on Earth would you do the same to the Conners? Both John and Sarah are amazingly heroic badasses and the decision to turn John into a villain was one of the main reasons none of the fans want to remember 'Terminator Genisys' ever happened. Besides, one of the best things about the first two 'Terminator' movies was that T-800 had some killer one-liners ("Talk to the hand!"), which has been missing from the rest of the films. If James Cameron returning to the franchise doesn't lead to at least three more iconic lines from Schwarzenegger, then what even is the point?
Reflect technological advances
You'd think a movie series about machines conquering mankind would stay updated on trends in technology. Granted, this isn't 'Black Mirror' and we're not saying the more recent movies don't have better tech in general. For all their failings, both 'Genisys' and 'Terminator Salvation' had some pretty cool and imaginatively designed machines. However, the sort of Artificial Intelligence that was considered science-fiction back in the '80s is now science fact and it would be nice to see Skynet (no, we're not calling it Genisys) get some cool upgrades. Perhaps an app that turns people into machines? A mind-control virus disguised as a pop-up ad? The possibilities are virtually endless.
Give T-800 a proper death or don't kill him at all
Here's a fun fact, every single 'Terminator' movie has had at least one scene where T-800 has seemingly died, only for a different one to arrive in the next film. 'Genisys' went a step further by actually having its T-800 return from the dead right after his death, not even waiting for the sadness to set in, though to be honest, we've seen this happen too many times to really feel sad anymore. You can't have a good 'Terminator' movie without Schwarzenegger (and no, CGI-Arnold from 'Salvation' does not count) and so it makes sense that he will need to stay alive in some way or other if the franchise is to continue. However, that does not mean we need to see the character heroically sacrifice himself again knowing that he will inevitably return. If T-800 is to die, it better be a good, final death and if not it's better if he doesn't die at all since we all know he'll be back.
'Terminator: Dark Fate' will arrive in theaters on November 1.
